Proverbs 22:13

The sluggard says, “There is a lion ¹  outside! I will be killed in the middle of the streets!” ² 

The sluggard says, "There is a lion outside!" or, "I will be murdered in the streets!"

The sluggard says, "There is a lion outside; I will be killed in the streets!"

The lazy person is full of excuses, saying, "If I go outside, I might meet a lion in the street and be killed!"

The loafer says, "There's a lion on the loose! If I go out I'll be eaten alive!"

The hater of work says, There is a lion outside: I will be put to death in the streets.

The lazy person says, "There is a lion outside! I shall be killed in the streets!"

The lazy man says, " There is a lion outside! I shall be slain in the streets!"

The sluggard says, “There is a lion ¹  outside! I will be killed in the middle of the streets!” ² 

¹ sn The proverb humorously describes the sluggard as making ridiculous excuses for not working – he might be eaten by a lion (e.g., 26:13). It is possible that “lion” is figurative, intended to represent someone who is like a lion, but this detracts from the humor of the exaggeration.

² tc The LXX changes the phrase to read “murderers in the street” to form a better parallelism, possibly because the verb רָצַח (ratsakh) is used only of humans, not wild animals. The NIV attempts to solve the problem by making the second line a separate claim by the sluggard: “or, ‘I will be murdered in the streets!’”